President Barack Obama has only been in office for just over nine months, but he's already hit the links as much as President Bush did in over two years.
CBS' Mark Knoller — an unofficial documentarian and statistician of all things White House-related — wrote on his Twitter feed that, "Today - Obama ties Pres. Bush in the number of rounds of golf played in office: 24.
Took Bush 2 yrs & 10 months."
This is ... baloney.
Who cares how much Obama took playing golf?
Personally, I would encourage President Obama to spend as much time playing Golf as possible. This is time NOT spent undermining the U.S. Economy.
One of my favorite presidents was Dwight David Eisenhower, who notoriously spent a lot of time playing golf rather than being "presidential". Who was hurt by Ike's Golfing Predilection? Only the poor souls who were hit by Ike's famous Slice.
Eisenhower decidedly did NOT act very presidential during his two terms of office ('54 - '60).
He did act decisively on Civil Rights matters (eg: sent troops to Little Rock to desegregate schools), ended the war in Korea and handled International issues in Lebanon, Berlin, Suez, Taiwan, Hungary. Avoided intervention in Viet Nam. He attempted detente with the Soviets, which was demolished by the Francis Gary Powers "U2" incident. He expanded the economy, balanced the budget, established H.E.W., NASA, and the Interstate Highway System (which, among other benefits, provided a national emergency landing strip pattern for Strategic Air Command planes).
No, Ike didn't do much but play golf ... badly.
If Obama would only play more golf, badly or otherwise, he might end up being as exemplary a president as was Eisenhower.
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The military has a saying about commanders who are to some degree aggressive and stupid.
A Stupid and Lazy commander may be ignored, for he will cause no lasting harm.
A Bright and Aggressive commander is a positive influence on his command.
A Bright and Lazy commander may incidentally or accidentally benefit his command, but will infrequently cause some minor damage.
But a Stupid and Aggressive Commander will confound his superiors, harm his command, and undermine the constructive intentions of his nation.
Or words to that effect.
Eisenhower was, essentially, a Bright and Lazy Commander , in that he caused no harm, and incidentally caused some good.
Obama is a Stupid and Aggressive Commander. Unfortunately, he has no superiors who might countermand his directions. He seems on the surface to be Bright, but in terms of his ability to do his job, he is overwhelmingly impressed with his own potential with the result that he acts stupidly, but is unable to recognize his limitations. He will cause more harm than good, and is unable to just play golf and let the running of his country be guided by better qualified sub-commanders.
Personally, I would prefer that he play golf more often, and attempt to govern as infrequently as is humanly possible. He should emulate Eisenhower, rather than either of the Roosevelts.
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